


A whole new world

by SilversSilence



Category: Persona 5
Genre: But mostly fluff, Fluff, M/M, Minor Royal Spoilers, Not Beta Read, Persona 5: The Royal, not written in my native language either, slight angst
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-19
Updated: 2020-11-19
Packaged: 2021-03-10 00:00:16
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,162
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27634453
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SilversSilence/pseuds/SilversSilence
Summary: Akechi doesn't really like snow.Much to his chagrin, Akira does.ShuAke week 2020, day 4: [seasons]
Relationships: Akechi Goro/Amamiya Ren, Akechi Goro/Kurusu Akira, Akechi Goro/Persona 5 Protagonist
Kudos: 19





	A whole new world

**Author's Note:**

> This is kind of rushed, I'm really sorry. It's not beta read, English isn't my native language either... I apologize in advantage for any mistakes. I hope it's readable.

„Sorry. I know this was my idea, but I’m afraid we’ll have to reschedule this meeting.“ Goro shifted uncomfortably, something about Akira’s gaze gave him a bad feeling. He hadn’t been exactly sure how his rival would react to the sudden change of plans, especially since Goro himself had asked to see him today. Before… _this_ interfered, at least.

„You still came here, though,“ Akira pointed out bluntly.

„Well, _yes.“_ Goro really couldn’t tell in which direction this conversation was going. The look in Akira’s eyes was about as plain as his voice, showing no emotion Goro could have used as hint whatsoever. He had thought that by now, he would have gotten used to this, but given the circumstances, it made him feel a bit uncomfortable. „But I hope you know that I have no intention in going back outside anytime soon. We can watch a movie or something if you have nothing better to do.“ _Or still want to spend time with me_.

He didn’t say the last part out loud.

Unfortunately, his rival seemed to be enjoying the situation a lot more than Goro did. The flash of a smirk appeared on his lips, his dark eyes sparkling slightly, fitting his cocky, teasing attitude. „Not used to snow, are we?“

Not answering, Goro turned away from Akira, only to see said snow behind the save windows of Leblanc. Akira was right, of course. It had been a while since he last left Tokyo during winter, and even then, he barely had time to pay attention to his surroundings outside the metaverse. But this much was the part he could handle. Naturally, it would catch him off guard to wake up and find the world outside this apartment covered in white, but that _wasn’t the issue._

The issue was the unpleasant memories this sight brought back. Faint, bittersweet scenes he didn’t even know still existed in the back of his head, childhood memories, all before…

Akira didn’t have to know any of this, though.

„Not too much,“ he replied instead. „And to be honest, I’m perfectly fine like that.“

Goro wasn’t exactly sure what kind of reaction he _expected._ He wasn’t sure if he really believed Akira would listen to him, or give up on their plans for today. Either way, he should have probably seen this coming.

„Hm. You know what? Forget about darts. I have a better idea.“

Goro raised an eyebrow. „Do I want to know, Kurusu?“ This was a rhetorical question; he knew the answer, just as well as he knew that there was no way back at this point. His rival was about as stubborn as himself.

„Let’s go to Inokashira.“

No. That certainly wasn’t something Goro wanted to hear right now. „What part of ‚I’m perfectly fine like that‘ didn’t you understand?“

„Aw, come on.“ Akira tilted his head. „This is going to be great, trust me.“

Goro turned away from his rival, gritting his teeth. „That was pathetic even for you, Kurusu,“ he muttered, hoping that Akira didn’t notice how he was trying to avoid the asking look in his rival’s eyes. Because it was working, but at that rate, Goro would rather die than admit that. For various reasons.“

„Give it a try. Please. It’s on your way home anyway, isn’t it?“

„I appreciate the implication that I’m not wanted here,“ Goro commented coldly.

Akira shifted at his words, a flash of guilt appearing on his face. „You know that’s not what I meant.“ He looked up for a moment, glancing out the window in front of him, and added: „Please.“

„You’re going to bother me with this until I agree, aren’t you?“

„Absolutely.“

Goro crossed his arms and sighed in annoyance. „You can be a real pain sometimes, you know that?“ He allowed himself to look back at Akira, only to turn away again when he got confronted with the same begging, yet cheeky puppy-eyes. „Well then,“ he muttered, knowing fully well that his rival would understand the challenging intention behind his words. „I’d love to see you try to convince me.“

***

Barely half an hour later, Goro found himself in the middle of Inokashira park, right next to his rival. Who was looking far too pleased with himself, in Goro’s eyes. „Please tell me why I’m doing this again.“

Akira gave him a soft chuckle. „Because you love me,“ he hummed.

„If that were true, you’d be on the best way to ruin it.“ Goro sighed. „Why are we here, anyway? What are you going to do now?“ He knew he wouldn’t like the answer no matter what it was going to be.

Akira paused for a moment, taking a few seconds to look around. Goro followed his gaze, even caught himself thinking that the sight surrounding them was actually kind of beautiful. The snow made the park appear like a whole new place to him; nothing scary, actually, it felt sort of welcoming. Peaceful.

Akira’s voice snapped him out of these thoughts. „Have you ever been in a snowball fight?“

„No,“ Goro answered immediately, ignoring the memories lingering somewhere in the back of his head. „And frankly, I’m okay with that.“

„This is fun,“ Akira promised, indeed sounding almost excited enough to make Goro believe him. „I think. Actually, it’s been a while since I last did that, too. But that’s the appeal, right?“

Goro didn’t bother answering. Not that Akira would have listened, anyway.

„So.“ Apparently not expecting a reaction from Goro, Akira picked up a handful of snow off the ground. For a moment, Goro seriously wondered if he somehow lost his ability to feel cold, before this thought was replaced by watching Akira failing to form the snow into a ball.

„I admit,“ Goro commented in a dry tone, „this is fun indeed.“

For a moment, Akira seemed to hesitate, looking down at the snow in his bare hands- _really, how weren’t they freezing-_ before turning to Goro again, a blunt expression on his face. „Let me try this then,“ he said, throwing the snow at him the way it was.

„What the fuck, Kurusu?“ Goro took a step backwards, not exactly sure what he was supposed to do with this development.

Apparently, his confusion was visible enough for Akira to react to it, because he picked up some more snow. „Your turn.“ That was all he said.

„This is ridiculous.“

„That’s not the weirdest thing we’ve done.“

„I mean-“

„Come on. Just once.“

Goro sighed. „You’re going to let go of it, then?“

„No promises.“

Of course. Goro rolled his eyes, before deciding to accept his defeat this one time. Both of them were perfectly aware that Akira would keep insisting, after all, and there wasn’t really a point in making the whole thing worse than it already was…

Despite that, Goro couldn’t help feeling absolutely stupid as he picked up some snow too, half-heartedly throwing it at Akira. Due to the distance between them, it hardly reached his rival, but- much to Goro’s chagrin- he didn’t seem to be bothered by that at all. „See? Is this fun?“

„No.“

Much to Goro’s surprise, Akira didn’t object. Instead, he simply laughed, a warm shine in his eyes. „I agree. We aren’t doing it right, it seems.“

„Is there a right way to it?“

The shine turned into a lively flash, only to be replaced by the same sparkling from before right after. „I’m pretty sure. Come on, follow me.“ Before Goro could ask about what he meant by _that_ now, Akira started to run a few steps away from him, turning around again. „Catch me,“ he simply prompted.

For a second, Goro hesitated. Seeing Akira like this, combined with his choice of words… it brought back memories he really wasn’t ready for, and part of him wondered if that had been his rival’s intention.

Either way, it was the reason why Goro decided to follow Akira’s demand in the end. A way to distract himself from those unpleasant feelings.

It wasn’t about half a minute into their game when Goro found himself… actually enjoying it. Akira had been correct- this was nowhere near their usual activities when they spent time together, and Goro was aware that it was absolutely ridiculous, but a far greater part of him didn’t care. A far greater part of him enjoyed this… waste of time at its best, spending time with Akira without any real purpose, chasing each other through the park like little kids.

He couldn’t possibly tell how much time had passed when Goro found his steps become shorter with each one. He could feel his throat burning from the cold air, his clothes slowly being soaked from the snow. Strangely enough, it felt like stepping back from a whole new world as he eventually stopped running.

After a while, Akira caught up on him, hands in his pockets. „Geez, show some mercy.“ He smirked, his glasses reflecting the white of the snow around him made his eyes appear sparkling. „Or, did I forget to mention it’s just a game?“

„Play to win or not at all,“ Goro replied simply, not even trying to hide his smile. Something about this situation made him feel like he would have failed to do so, anyway.

Akira stayed quiet, but weirdly enough not in a ‚I-don’t-have-anything-to-say‘ way. In fact, he looked like he had a lot on his mind, not even attempting to put any of it into words. The sparkle in his eyes had turned into a soft shine, his cheeks darkened in a faint red from the cold. It had to be the cold. „How do you look good with snow in your hair?“

„Glad to see you haven’t changed a bit, Kurusu,“ Goro commented, trying his best to keep any sort of emotion from his voice, knowing fully well that his cheeks betrayed him.

 _It’s just the cold,_ Goro repeated in his mind. The only effect this had was that the words lost more meaning each time they occurred.

Akira chuckled. „I could say the same to you. But you have to admit this was fun, right?“ He didn’t seem to expect an answer- probably because he didn’t need Goro to say it out loud, anyway. That was what he suspected, at least.

Suddenly back at the serious expression from before, Akira took his hands out of the pockets again. „I should have brought gloves too, though. My hands are freezing,“ he complained, turning away from Goro again.

„How the hell are you still alive?“ Goro prioritized this question over an ‚I knew it‘. Before he could think further about this- or before Akira had the chance to react, even- he added: „Want me to do something about it?“

He should have _known_ this was a mistake. He should have known Akira would ignore the sarcastic tone in his voice, and take the opportunity to- „Please.“ The attempt to maintain his confident, cocky self failed miserably, or at least, Goro wasn’t convinced by this act. Which made the whole thing even worse, really.

He felt kind of awkward, trying to avoid eye contact as he wrapped his hands around Akira’s. „Like this?“ He found himself asking the question that had been repeating on his mind over and over before he realized what he was saying. „I mean-“ What did he mean, anyway? How did he not expect this to make it sound like they were some sort of… couple?

Part of Goro had hoped for Akira to tease him about that, and the fact that he didn’t… made it even worse. He felt his own face glowing as Akira looked up from their hands right into his eyes, sure that his cheeks were just as dark as his rival’s, at that point. „Y-yeah,“ Akira answered quietly, looking away again. „I didn’t expect you to actually do it.“

„Oh, shut up.“

A few seconds passed like this. Akira didn’t move, didn’t seem to want Goro to let go of his hands again either. And, as much as he tried to convince himself that he simply didn’t know what to do next, part of Goro found some kind of comfort in this situation, too.

Akira was to break the silence between them eventually, head still turned away from Goro, weirdly quiet as he started talking. „Do you think… that’s just this perfect reality?“ He paused, seemed to reflect his words, his voice was strangely hesitant when he continued. „It sure feels perfect, at least.“ This time, his laugh sounded almost painful to Goro’s ears. „We’ll be able to do this again after going back to our reality, right?“

Goro really couldn’t tell if he was joking.

Had Akira looked at him in this moment, he would have seen his smile fade, his eyes going back to the dull abyss from before. Goro didn’t bother trying to pretend he truly believed in his words as he answered. „I’m sure we can.“


End file.
